Conventionally, as disclosed in Laid-open Japanese Patent Publication No. H. 8-175776 (FIG. 6 and FIG. 7), a machinery chamber is provided above the elevator shaft whereby the elevator cage (cage) and/or counterweight (balancing weight) and the like ascend and descend and the hoisting machine and/or control panel and speed governor and the like are provided within this.
For example, in the machinery chamber 1 of the conventional elevator shown in FIG. 1, a hoisting machine 2 is arranged in the center, a control panel 3 is arranged along the left side wall 1a and a speed governor 4 is arranged along the rear wall 1b, respectively.
The cage and counterweight, not shown, are suspended in the manner of an elevator cage by means of a main rope 5 that passes over a traction sheave 2a and a deflector sheave 2b that are driven in rotation by the hoisting machine 2.
In addition, a machine bed 6 on which the hoisting machine 2 is placed is supported by means of anti-vibration rubber elements 7a, 7b on a total of three machine beams 8 that extend horizontally in the left and right directions of the drawing.
Also, these machine beams 8 are supported by means of supporting beams 10a, 10b mounted in the building and extending in the direction perpendicular to the plane of the drawing, by means of level-raising machine beams 9a, 9b, as illustrated in for example Laid-open Japanese Patent Publication No. H. 11-79624 (FIG. 7).
In the case of the conventional elevator shown in FIG. 1, the hoisting machine 2 is arranged in the middle of the machinery chamber 1 for convenience in suspending the elevator cage and the counterweight.
In this way, the working space needed for maintenance and inspection of the hoisting machine 2 and control panel 3 and speed governor 4 and the like is disposed so as to surround the hoisting machine 2; however, it is still possible to ensure sufficient width necessary for performing the maintenance and inspection tasks.
However, the laws relating to buildings and the standards etc relating to ensuring safety of elevators are different in Japan and foreign countries and in some countries it is obligatory to guarantee a total working space in the machinery chamber of width providing more than a certain fixed area for purposes of maintenance and inspection. It is of course obligatory on the applicant to observe the law of the country in which the application is made.
In this case, if the working space is arranged so as to surround the hoisting machine 2, the safety standards of this country cannot be satisfied, so it is necessary to provide a machinery chamber of a floor area larger than the horizontal cross-sectional dimension of the elevator shaft.
Furthermore, in the case of the conventional elevator shown in FIG. 1, it is necessary to arrange the control panel 3 on the line of extension of a machine beam 8, for reasons to do with the layout in the machinery chamber 1.
Consequently, if it is not possible to extend the tips of the machine beams 8 to the supporting beam 10c that is mounted on the building and is below the left-hand wall 1a, a supporting beam 10a mounted on the building must be added.
Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, if the tips of the machine beams 8 were to be extended as far as the supporting beam 10c that is mounted on the building and is below the wall 1a on the left-hand side, it would be necessary for the control panel 3 to be mounted on a machine beam 8 and a working platform 11 to be arranged so as to guarantee a workspace for maintenance and inspection of the control panel 3.
In this case, it may sometimes be necessary to restrict the dimension in the height direction of the control panel 3 so that the top of the control panel 3 does not interfere with the ceiling portion of the machinery chamber 1.
However, as can be seen from FIG. 2, arranging the hoisting machine in substantially the middle of the machinery chamber for reasons to do with the mechanical construction and, accompanying such arrangement of the hoisting machine in the middle, arranging the control panel etc at the periphery of the machinery chamber was in fact the conventional arrangement. However, as explained above, this made it impossible to observe the standard for elevator installation of the country in question.